Rhode Island

For several years now, Rhode Island has consistently buttressed its place as a national leader on energy efficiency programs and policies. The legislature recently transformed the state’s Clean Water Finance Agency into the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank (RIIB), and created an Efficient Buildings Fund within the RIIB to finance energy upgrades in public buildings. The fund will dovetail well with a December Executive Order from the Governor directing emissions reductions in government buildings through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and adoption of a building energy stretch code.

The Rhode Island Energy Efficiency Resource Management Council and Public Utility Commission (PUC) are continuing their commitment to energy efficiency with the 2016 Efficiency Program Plan, which targets energy savings of 2.55 percent of retail sales from 2012 levels, and the 2016 System Reliability Plan, which utilizes geo-targeting strategies to ensure least-cost system reliability.

These efforts support the policy objectives outlined in the state's recently issued long term energy plan, Energy 2035, as well as their Systems Integration Rhode Island Initiative, which recommend continued support and enhancement of least cost procurement policies, while suggesting their expansion to all fuels.

National Grid recently completed a successful multifamily benchmarking pilot, providing lessons and potential solutions to unlocking energy savings in one of the hardest to reach market segments.

Complementary Polices

Rhode Island has been a regional leader in promoting building energy codes and appliance efficiency standards. It was the first state in New England to adopt the 2012 IECC for residential buildings and ASHRAE 90.1-2010 for commercial construction in 2013. The state has also been one of the most active states in working to improve energy code compliance through benchmarking studies and innovative training. As part of its Codes & Standards Initiative, Rhode Island permits National Grid to claim savings from energy codes and National Grid is now also exploring ways it can support appliance efficiency standards adoption at the state and federal level.

2015 program year data as reported to the NEEP EM&V Forum for the Regional Energy Efficiency Database (REED) and E2's Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report. Savings are expressed in net annual terms. Electric Savings include a major combined heat and power project at Torray Plastics which saved ~1 percent electric retail sales.